Stand-off as Iyambo refuses NamPower order to quit Cenored board

NamPower managing director Kahenge Haulofu has ordered senior executive Kandali Iyambo to step down from the board of electricity distributor Cenored, but she has refused to comply.

The directive, issued in a letter dated 24 March, requires Iyambo to vacate her position as a Cenored board member with effect from 1 April.

At the centre of Haulofu’s decision is Iyambo’s dual role within Namibia’s electricity sector.

She serves as NamPower’s executive responsible for the modified single buyer (MSB) market – the system that governs how electricity is traded, allocated and priced – while also chairing the board of Cenored, one of the distributors operating within that market.

Haulofu said the decision follows concerns raised in an audit conducted by the Electricity Control Board (ECB) in late 2025.

The audit concluded that Iyambo's roles as the executive responsible for the MSB office, while serving concurrently as chairperson of the Cenored board of directors, a contestable customer, present a clear conflict of interest.

The ECB recommended that the NamPower board take immediate steps to address and rectify this appointment.

'Structural conflict'

An external legal opinion, seen by Namibian Sun, commissioned from ENS Africa on 30 January supported the ECB’s findings, noting that while there is no explicit “black-letter” prohibition in the MSB rules preventing the MSB executive from serving on the board of a contestable customer, the combination of her roles creates a governance risk.

The firm found that her position as market operator, which involves decisions affecting distributors such as Cenored, together with directors’ duties to avoid conflicts of interest and the ECB’s supervisory stance, creates a structural conflict.

It concluded that the dual role constitutes “a material and persistent potential conflict of interest (and perception thereof) that should be eliminated as a matter of good governance and regulatory compliance assurance”.

ENS Africa recommended that Iyambo step down from the Cenored board, particularly as chairperson, for as long as she serves as the executive responsible for the MSB office.

“A continuous structural and incumbency conflict that is not easily managed merely through item-by-item declarations, particularly where the MSB executive holds authority over frameworks, algorithms, and procedural discretion that apply to Cenored routinely,” it stated.

Meeting resolution

In the letter to Iyambo, reviewed by this publication, Haulofu said the NamPower board had sought an external legal opinion on a possible conflict of interest arising from her dual roles as NamPower’s MSB executive and chair of Cenored.

He added that the board held a special meeting on 19 February to discuss the issue and passed a resolution.

“Having carefully studied this board decision, I am of the view that I do not have the power to ask you to resign as a Cenored board chairperson, since being a chairperson of the Cenored board is because of having been elected to that position by your fellow board directors as per the shareholders' agreement," the letter notes.

"Notwithstanding the above, as the shareholder [NamPower] of Cenored, I do have authority to ask you to resign from being a board member of Cenored with effect from 1 April 2026, as I hereby do,” the letter added.

Deadlock

Iyambo has pushed back against the decision, however, raising concerns about procedural fairness in a 17 February letter to the NamPower board chairperson.

“I regret to inform the board that I am unable to accept the decision requesting my resignation from the Cenored board. I remain committed to fulfilling my duties diligently and in the best interests of NamPower as a shareholder,” she said.

Iyambo said that she was neither formally consulted nor afforded an opportunity to respond.

“If conflict of interest is considered a critical governance principle, it must be applied consistently… including at the board level," she said.

Iyambo indicated that she may escalate the matter to oversight bodies, including the attorney general and the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Timing raises questions

The internal dispute comes as Namibia advances the Angola-Namibia Transmission Interconnector (ANNA) Project, a strategic cross-border electricity initiative valued at about N$2 billion.

The project involves the construction of a 362-kilometre transmission line linking the Kunene substation in Namibia to the Lubango substation in Angola.

The implementation of the ANNA project at NamPower falls under Iyambo’s portfolio.

Sources familiar with internal dynamics say the timing of the decision has raised questions.

“This is not just about governance – it’s about control over a strategic asset that will shape the country’s energy future for decades,” one source said.

Another claimed this is a "targeted attempt to remove the person driving the project".

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